Music social networking Web site operator Imeem said Monday it has agreed to acquire Snocap, the digital content tracking company founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning.
San Francisco-based Imeem did not disclose financial terms of the deal.
Pay for Play
Snocap developed a digital fingerprinting technology that checks media files uploaded to a Web site against a registry of copyrighted works to determine if a song has been cleared for playback in its entirety online.It also tracks payments to record labels and artists whose music is streamed on sites like Imeem.
In addition, Snocap powers technology that lets users of News Corp.'s MySpace 
sell downloads of original music directly through their MySpace Web pages.
Snocap's technology for buying music downloads on MySpace will continue to be operated by Imeem.
The Original Napster
Fanning, who created the Napster online file-sharing service as a college student, founded Snocap in 2002.
He was a member of the board of directors but had not been active in the company in recent years.
In October, the San Francisco-based company cut its work force by nearly half so it could focus on selling itself.
© 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
© 2008 ECT News Network. All rights reserved.
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